Scientists estimate that the sun has 5 billion years more before it transitions to a red giant and grows to swallow planet Earth. It’s a safe bet that whatever life is still crawling around on the surface at that point will still be waiting for Todd McFarlane’s Spawn movie.
The comics artist and writer has been teasing the movie’s arrival for years, with the prospect of a dark supernatural superhero drama starring Jamie Foxx as Spawn and Jeremy Renner as Twitch getting everyone excited. But we’re now years on from any positive news, and despite McFarlane’s indomitable cheerleading, not a single second of footage has been shot, and many are skeptical this will ever happen.
But McFarlane is adamant it’s not dead, saying in an interview with Comicbook.com that he’s not “farting around.” Responding to a query about fans skeptical about the movie’s chances, he said:
“I get it, because we’re living in a weird time, in the pandemic, and nobody wants to say anything, because you don’t know what’s going to happen and whatever else. But we as a collective team are doing what needs to be done to keep this moving. We put a little bit of pressure on ourselves to say, ‘Can we have by midyear something really big and tangible to go public with?’ Which is not only to backtrack on the people we’ve added, but to also say, ‘And we sold it to a studio.’ Something that’s really tangible. That it’s like we’re not just farting around.”
McFarlane goes on to acknowledge that this waiting process is frustrating, but he doesn’t want to unveil anything before it’s ready:
“I know when people don’t get concrete names and information and stuff, and when I have to say, ‘Stuff’s happening. Just wait,’ that’s not very satisfying answer, which is essentially what I’m saying. And that’s what’s frustrating, because I know that it’s way more than that happening. And you know, dealing on the Hollywood front, with all the stuff, there are lots and lots of things going on that have yet to be sort of announced,” he added. ‘But yeah, I fall in that same bucket, but at least we’re all rowing in the same direction right now. So I think there’s a bit of a distraction, but now, I think we’re all pretty focused here, and everybody wants the same goal, which is, ‘Let’s take this thing to the next level. Come on, guys, let’s go.'”
One big fly in the ointment is that the script reportedly leaked in early 2021, and reactions were intensely negative. It appears that the intention was to keep the budget down by featuring Spawn for just 15 minutes, and for at least some of that time, he’d have taken the form of a bed.
Spawn fans want operatic and violent diabolical action; they don’t want a slightly spooky bed! As the review for the supposed leaked script summarized:
“This film is never getting made. And if it does get made from this script it’s garbage. Total garbage. Absolute crap.”
Let’s just hope when McFarlane is finally ready to announce something, it’s worth the wait. But we won’t believe Spawn is actually happening until we see pictures from the shoot.